EY to establish Security Operations Centres across India in collaboration with IBM
In keeping with its strategy of expanding its digital services segment in India, global professional services firm EY has announced a strategic partnership with IT giant IBM to launch a Security Operations Centre (SOC) in the country. The SOCs will be come under the ambit of the firm’s Managed Services division.
In light of an increasingly insecure global cyber space, cybersecurity is set to become a major area of focus for Indian firms this year. Experts from leading consulting firms in the country have predicted that Indian businesses will be enhancing their data protection mechanisms through various channels.
Alongside overall structural changes to minimise risk, firms in India are expected to leverage automation and other Industry 4.0 technologies to enhance their cybersecurity practices. Big Four accounting and advisory firm EY has moved to capitalise on this increasing demand through its latest partnership with global IT giant IBM.
The two firms aim to establish SOCs across India, which will leverage a state-of-the-art automated tool to detect cyber threats designed by IBM. The tool – known as QRadar – will be incorporated in each of the SOCs, which are not only designed to detect threats, but also to initiate responses and offer solutions to cyber attacks.
The SOCs will fall under EY’s Managed Services division, and will offer clients with advanced cybersecurity mechanisms. The SOCs are designed on the principle that cybersecurity is a product of constant vigilance rather than sporadic responses to cyber attacks, due to which it conducts real-time scanning for cyber threats.
Enhanced capabilities in the cybersecurity domain appear to constitute part o a larger plan at EY to develop its capacity to offer digital services. The firm recently acquired Fortune Cookie UX Design in India, and announced plans to add as many as 2,000 professionals to its digital services offering in the next three years.
Commenting on the partnership with IBM, Partner and Alliance Leader at EY India Sibjyoti Basu said, “With digital transformation and new technologies exposing organisations to unknown vulnerabilities, the need to address this issue is more crucial now than ever. The customised capabilities that the next-gen SOCs provide, can immensely strengthen an organisation’s cyber-security posture.”
Chief Transformation Officer at IBM India Vikas Arora added, “The offering combines EY’s cybersecurity intelligence with QRadar, our security analytics platform that can detect and prioritise threats to critical assets and then automatically investigate those threats using cognitive intelligence.”
